


when the wolfsbane blooms

by goinghost



Series: werewolf gimmick - werewolf vespa au [1]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, ever wondered what danny's take on space werewolves is? now you can find out!, jay onetiredboy read this and says its the best werewolf au ever done in the history of werewolf aus, yes he told me to tag it that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goinghost/pseuds/goinghost
Summary: The first time Buddy saw Vespa transform, it wasn’t by choice.She knew that she needed to tell her. Not only were they partners-in-crime, but they were alsopartners. You could only keep the fact that you turned into a hulking furry monster every 50 days (the standard length of the Rangian moon cycle) from the person you were living with for 50 days or so. Then the hulking furry monster was out of the bag.--Vespa is a werewolf. Buddy can't say she expected that.
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay
Series: werewolf gimmick - werewolf vespa au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021005
Comments: 22
Kudos: 43





	when the wolfsbane blooms

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Werewolf Gimmick](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25722805) by [muttshrooms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muttshrooms/pseuds/muttshrooms). 



> happy almost-halloween! i honestly didn't think i'd have this fic finished until the 31st but then i did a writing stream (which is a concept i had never considered until recently) and knocked it all out in a couple hours while my friends pogged in the chat. it was a very fun experience and i'll definitely be doing them again sometime! if you're interested in when, i'll post about it on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/GHOSTZVNE) whenever i start one! 
> 
> this fic is very much inspired by the wonderful werewolf!juno fic that my roommate levi did except this time: Lesbians Edition. i've been on a vesbud lockdown since heart of it all pt. 2 came out and i've got some things coming down the pipeline that i'm really excited for! for now i offer this as halloween tribute
> 
> title from 'werewolf gimmick' by the mountain goats. yes i know. sorry it's my default werewolf song for obvious reasons (also one of my favorite tmg songs so you should give it a listen!) 
> 
> cw for brief and very light body horror for the paragraph that starts, "Before she knew it, her last hour was up..." as well as some self-loathing thoughts on vespa's part. she has internalized monsterphobia

The first time Buddy saw Vespa transform, it wasn’t by choice. 

She knew that she needed to tell her. Not only were they partners-in-crime, but they were also  _ partners _ . You could only keep the fact that you turned into a hulking furry monster every 50 days (the standard length of the Rangian moon cycle) from the person you were living with for 50 days or so. Then the hulking furry monster was out of the bag. 

But she’d been stupid. She’d lost track of the days because she’d been too busy  _ living  _ for once to be weighed down by the secret that threatened every good thing in Vespa’s life. So fucking stupid. 

Being with Buddy was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. For the first time in her life, she was running towards something, not away. Every morning, whether they were planning a heist, robbing a bank, or just existing with each other and eating shitty takeout on whatever planet they’d flown to that week, Vespa looked forward to the time she’d spend with Buddy. She’d never been in a real relationship before they’d met, but she couldn’t help but think that maybe this was it. Maybe Buddy was the one. 

It was three months into their relationship—working or otherwise—before they’d managed to scrounge together enough money for a ship of their own. That’s when Vespa knew she was fucked. She managed to push the inevitable reveal to the back of her mind to the point where she was idly convinced she still had a week before the next full moon on Ranga when she felt the telltale aches that always came with the shift. 

By her estimate of how many times her bones popped, she had maybe an hour or two before sunset. The problem with that was that she and Buddy were at least four hours away from the nearest planet. They were deep in the Outer Rim, and they hadn’t been planning on landing any time soon. God, she’d really messed this one up. 

She breathed through her panic, the calm during a big job taking over her buzzing mind. She’d just hole up in the bathroom until Ranga’s night ended in six hours. Vespa could lock the door and pray to every god she didn’t believe in that this plan would work. She couldn’t let Buddy get hurt. 

“I have to—uh, bathroom,” she stuttered out while Buddy was making a sandwich for lunch. Vespa stood so fast that her aching legs almost gave out underneath her. But they didn’t. Small fucking mercies. 

She wasn’t hiding her pain enough, it seemed. Buddy looked concerned. “Are you alright, darling?”

“Yeah, I’m—I’m fine, Bud. Lunch just didn’t agree with me, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”

That didn’t do anything to stop Buddy’s worried expression, but she must have sensed Vespa’s urgency and so she left it alone. 

Vespa walked on shaky limbs all the way to the bathroom. She would’ve run as soon as she’d gotten out of line of sight of Buddy, but this close to moonrise she wasn’t capable of that anymore. Her muscles were tensed, which did nothing to help her stiff joints. She didn’t even attempt to relax until the door was firmly locked and she was perched on the closed lid of the toilet with her knees to her chest. Then her legs began to ache and so she climbed off the toilet and sat herself down in the shower. 

All things considered, it wasn’t the worst place she’d ever had to transform in, but that did little to relieve her nerves. Buddy was out there, and Vespa wasn’t sure how reinforced the bathroom door of their shitty cruising vessel was, but she doubted it would withstand more than a few pounds from the monster making its home inside of her. 

_ Fuck.  _ This hadn’t happened before. She’d never been around people she’d cared about while she was a slobbering beast because she’d never had people she cared about like Buddy. When the bite happened, Vespa had been alone, and the bite made sure she stayed that way. It’d never seemed worth it to try to get close to people when she knew how easily she could hurt them or they could hurt her. Never worth it, until Buddy Aurinko had come in and swept her off her feet. Buddy Aurinko had barrelled into her life like a battering ram and made sure she couldn’t live without her. Vespa wasn’t sure she’d be able to isolate if she tried with her new partner (in crime and every other sense of the word) determined to show her all of the adventures the galaxy had to offer. 

And now she was going to ruin it all because of one stupid mistake. She’d let her guard down for a few weeks and look where it got her.  _ Paranoia pays, Ilkay, thought you would’ve learned that lesson by now.  _ She’d be lucky if Buddy ever spoke to her again, once whatever wounds the wolf inflicted on her were treated.  _ Fuck.  _

She knew the reason she was spiraling like this was because the hours had turned to minutes and the minutes had turned to seconds and Vespa’s body was getting ready to disentangle itself from humanity, but even knowing that her thoughts were barely her own at this point, she couldn’t stop the waves of regret and anxiety that smacked her chest like blows. She just wished she’d had more fucking time. 

That was the last thought she had before the monster took over. 

* * *

To say that Buddy was worried would be an understatement. To say that Buddy was terrified would perhaps be an exaggeration, but in the moment when she heard something that sounded suspiciously like a body hitting the bathroom floor, all she knew was that breathing had become surprisingly difficult. 

“Vespa?” She called out. “Are you alright?” There was no response. It was possible that Vespa hadn’t heard her, but on a ship this small that was very unlikely. Well, her father always said that no relationship was complete until you’d seen your partner with their pants down, although Buddy was sure he meant more so in the metaphorical sense. Her father was fond of metaphor. 

She moved quickly out of the kitchen and down the hall. The closer she got to the door of the bathroom, the stranger the situation became. There was...something in the bathroom Something that she was sure wasn’t her Vespa. It sounded like some kind of animal, if she wasn’t mistaken (and Buddy tried not to be). There was sniffing and shuffling and the brush of fur against synth-wood. With a more than reasonable amount of caution, Buddy approached the door. The animal noises ceased when she laid her hand along the panel to open it, but resumed as soon as it beeped angrily at her. Locked, of course. 

Lucky, this was Buddy’s ship, and so she had the override code. Unluckily, she had no way to know what she would find on the other side. With a hand on the blaster at her hip, she punched in the numbers and prepared to jump back should the animal’s bite be worse than its bark. 

Instead of the grizzly mauling she’d almost been expecting to find, there was...a dog. No, not a dog, something much bigger than any canine Buddy had ever encountered. It appeared to be some kind of mutated wolf. There were all the components Buddy would expect to find on a standard Terran wolf—a muzzle of sharp teeth and bright yellow eyes surrounded by coarse, brown fur—except the fur in question was not solely brown. The outer layer of its coat appeared to be a remarkably familiar shade of green. Remarkably familiar because Buddy had helped dye it that shade just two weeks ago. 

Not quite believing what was coming out of her mouth, Buddy asked, “Vespa?” 

The creature leaped forward as if to pounce and Buddy, startled, dropped her blaster. Whether she was really Vespa or not, it was hard not to be unsettled by the idea of those teeth coming into contact with her throat, but the animal merely pushed a paw into her chest and started lapping at her face with a wet _slap_. Another point in the “My partner of 4 months and 20 days happens to be some kind of supernatural animal creature” column. This was fine. Buddy Aurinko was nothing if not cool under pressure. Of course, usually she was the person who instigated the pressure, but no matter. _You’ve got this, Aurinko._

“Hello, darling,” she said, raising a tentative hand and running it through presumably-Vespa’s fur. Wolf-Vespa seemed to have grown bored of trying to lick her makeup off and was now sniffing at her waves of red hair. Buddy laughed, a twinkling sound, “Glad to see that my new shampoo is a hit, I’ll have to remember that when you’re in your right state.” 

Vespa, of course, said nothing. She supposed it was a small mercy that Vespa was unable to speak. As unshakeable as the great Buddy Aurinko claimed to be, she wasn’t sure if she could handle both the existence of the supernatural, and a green-tinted wolf that  _ talked  _ on the same day. 

Her canid partner finally took her paw off of Buddy’s chest and began shifting around the hallway. She stuck her nose into every nook and cranny she could find as if she were experiencing their tiny home anew. For all Buddy knew of the lycanthropic process, she could be. It was clear Vespa remembered Buddy enough to understand that she wasn’t a threat, but she wasn’t sure there was much of anything else going on in that furry brain of hers. 

“You know, dear, while I did suspect you were becoming nervous about something, I don’t think I ever could’ve predicted this,” she said idly, still petting Vespa’s soft coat. “I’m afraid my ideas were more in the realm of a painful anniversary, or perhaps a jealous ex I needed to fear. Lycanthropy didn’t even make the back up conspiracy board.” 

Vespa leaned into her hand and closed her eyes, as if savoring the sensation. For something so animalistic, the gesture felt oddly human. Buddy could recall Vespa doing this exact thing while they lay in bed as Buddy ran her fingers through her green hair. 

After a few more minutes of Buddy prattling on to fill the silence and Vespa huffing and sniffing to her heart’s content, Buddy pulled herself up off of the floor and retrieved her comms from the kitchen. At least now she would have something to do while Vespa explored the small cruiser that they called home. 

Hours passed. Buddy played mindless games and watched mindless streams and read mindless articles until she couldn’t stand the sight of her own hand gripping the comms anymore. Vespa decidedly remained a wolf. Once it hit hour five, Buddy had the good sense to look up how long the Rangian moon remained in the sky and was delighted to learn she only had one hour of dogsitting left. 

As interesting as this experience had been, she knew that she and Vespa had a good number of things to talk about once she was capable of anything other than a soft growl. 

Before she knew it, her last hour was up and she watched in fascination as Vespa’s wolf form arched unnaturally and shifted into something new entirely. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant thing to witness, but Buddy found it impossible to look away as limbs grew or shrunk and bent or straightened seemingly at random until in place of a wolf there was a bleary looking woman with green hair blinking from the foot of their only couch. 

“Wh—Bud?” The exhaustion seemed to scare itself from Vespa’s eyes, “Buddy! Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt? Did I—”

Buddy reached out and took her face in her hands, “Vespa, darling, relax. I promise I’m as fit as a fiddle. Not one scratch on me, though I’m worried I may have an awful cowlick.”

Vespa looked confused, “But—how? I was…” she trailed off. “What happened?” 

“Well,  _ I _ made myself an excellent sandwich and  _ you _ appeared to need to lock yourself in the bathroom so badly that you couldn’t even stop to kiss the cook, and then you got yourself into quite the hairy situation and I’ve been waiting for you to find your way out of it for—” unnecessarily, she checked her watch, “—six hours now. Honestly, Vespa, I don’t mind this big secret of yours, but next time you’re hiding some kind of paranormal origin, I’d prefer you to mark it on the calendar, maybe a day planner as well.”

“Bud, what are you talking about?” 

“The furry predicament you’ve found yourself in, of course. I can’t say that I mind the general situation, although the specifics of your circumstances elude me at the moment.” 

“But—you don’t mind that I...” Vespa trailed off, blinking as if Buddy had slipped into another language. While it was true that she knew several, she was also incredibly aware of every word that left her mouth, and Buddy knew for a fact that everything she’d said had been Solar because she’d spent the last half hour writing it. 

“That you appear to turn into a large dog every, oh, I’d say 50 days if my research on Ranga’s moon cycle is to be believed? No, of course not. This galaxy is large and full of all kinds of possibilities, I’ve been trying to prove that to you for months. Now, I will say that I do mind that you’d chosen to keep this particular possibility concealed. Honestly, Vespa, I’m not sure what you were thinking. We live on the same ship and share the same bed, how did you expect to keep it a secret much longer?”

Vespa scowled, but after a few moments her expression softened, “I know, I know. It was stupid of me. I guess I just put off telling you for so long that eventually I couldn’t say anything.”

“Why did you not just tell me when we first met?”

Vespa scowled again, but her eyes grew distant. She shrugged uncomfortably. “I couldn’t be sure how you’d react, how it might change your mind about working together. People haven’t always been good about my...situation.”

Buddy’s desire to murder strangers was never particularly high, but the soft, uncertain tone in which Vespa shared those words increased it significantly. “I see.” The wind left her sails all at once. She collapsed backwards onto the stained couch. “Well, consider the dog thoroughly out of the bag now.”

“Yeah…” Vespa watched Buddy owlishly, blinking an assassin’s eyes. “Bud, how can you be fine with this? You just watched me turn into a monster for six hours.”

“Please, I’ve seen lambs with more murderous intent. You were more of a puppy dog.”

Vespa wasn’t deterred, “But I could’ve hurt you, or—” 

“Dear,” she leaned forward from her position on the couch for a moment and brought herself eye level with Vespa, who hadn’t left the floor yet, “the worst you did was tear a small hole in my shirt with an errant claw. Fortunately, I believe the shirt will make a full recovery. I’ve always been a jewel with a needle and thread.” 

“Be serious, Bud, you were in danger—”

“Never.” The fierceness of her tone seemed to surprise Vespa, who startled a bit. “I am never in danger with you, Vespa Ilkay.” She let those words linger in the air for a few moments. The strength of her conviction was nothing new to Buddy, but she didn’t think she’d ever managed to express this sentiment to Vespa before. Which was truly a shame, because Vespa deserved to hear it every single day. Buddy Aurinko trusted her in the only way she knew how, with a confidence she’d spent years digging deeply to possess. 

Then she smirked, “Well, besides the thrilling heists and daring escapes we regularly get up to, which even I’ll admit are not always the safest courses of action.” 

Vespa managed a small huff of laughter, but there was something strange about her expression. Buddy couldn’t put her finger on the change until she began crying silently, barely bothering to try and hide her tears. Mirth forgotten, Buddy reached her arms out and enveloped Vespa as best she could. At first, she kept her grip loose in case Vespa wished to slip out of the hug, but after a second or two, Vespa pulled them impossibly close together and Buddy took that as her cue to tighten her hold.

Vespa buried her face into Buddy’s shoulder and sobbed silently for what could’ve been minutes or hours or days for all Buddy cared. There was nothing at all in the dark vacuum of space except them and their embrace. She rubbed circles into Vespa’s shivering back and whispered every calming word she’d stored up for just such an occasion. 

Eventually, Vespa’s shuddering halted and she cleared her throat. It was the first sound she’d made in however long they’d been clasped together. “Thanks, Bud. For—for understanding. For everything, really, agreeing to be my partner, planning our heists, buying a ship with me. I don’t know what I would’ve been doing without you, but I know it wouldn’t have been as good as this.”

“Crying on the dirty floor of a cheap Class 2 vessel?” Buddy asked wryly. She used her thumb to wipe a stray tear away from Vespa’s cheek. 

Vespa laughed. It felt like the beginning of something new. “Exactly. And there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” 

“Well,” Buddy smiled, “that makes two of us.” 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
> like i said in the beginning, you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/GHOSTZVNE) where i talk about penumbra and do fic writing streams now apparently! it's a good time, i promise. 
> 
> if you liked this fic, be sure to drop a comment or kudos! if you comment something nice there is a one hundred perfect chance it will make me happy-scream when i get the email notif, and who doesn't love a good happy-scream?


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